In the preparations of my son's 2nd birthday I have done a lot of researching. Along with the show "Outrageous Kid Parties" on TLC I have come to the conclusion that just because you can AFFORD IT doesn't mean you should do it.
While I want my son to have an awesome birthday and celebrate the day he was born, I do not want my child to grow up expecting extravagant birthday parties with every attraction you can think of. He's turning 2. It's a big deal in my house. However, that does not in any way shape or form constitute me spending hundreds of dollars.
IMO, that takes away from the true celebration of birthdays. First of all, he won't even probably REMEMBER this birthday party. While yes he can look back at pictures he still won't cognitively remember how mommy/daddy spent hundreds of dollars. The important thing is that friends (and family) come together to celebrate the birth of our first child.
That's what's important. The friends/family who are here to show their love and appreciation for our son. Not the bounce house, $400 cake, $200 worth of decorations, etc. It's the love of family and friends.
Now will I be spending money on my son's birthday? Of course. I think I may splurge and get him a nice cake or I'll splurge and get a simple bounce house for all the kids to play in. I'm not going to make this over the top. Although, the thought DID cross my mind.
I had a conversation with a friend who's child is older than mine. I was telling her all the ideas and thoughts that I had and she said it perfectly "why not just do something simple. that's what his birthday is about. there's no need to go crazy." I think too often it's hard to get caught up. I have some friends who do spend oodles of money on their child's birthday. Do I think badly of these people? Of course not. But that doesn't mean that I have to do the same thing. It's easy to get sucked into that but in reality it's your decision on what you want your child to remember and expect.
Not to mention if you can afford it now who says you can afford it in 3 yrs and then what do you tell your child when they EXPECT this over the top party and are not happy with a simple get together? To me it's setting up for a disaster. I want my kids to appreciate the love they have from other people, not expect the attention.
So I guess I'll close with this... just because you can afford something doesn't mean you should buy it. This extends wayyyy past just children's birthdays. I only spoke about children's birthdays because it's what I'm dealing with and well that show "Outrageous kid parties" is new and i happened to see a little bit of it the other day.
Have a blessed Monday!!
[Please keep praying for those in Mainland Japan. You can donate at http://www.redcross.org/ or you can go to http://www.bandsforarms.com/ and purchase a Humanitarian Relief bracelet. Bands for arms is a nonprofit oranization that helps support the troops by donating to the USO so the troops can communicate with their families]
2 comments:
Yeah... when birthdays become so over the top, obviously expensive, I think they're mostly just a show for the parents to say "Look how much I love my child because I spent so much money!!!" and its ridiculous... kids don't care if the cake costs $100 or $10 (which, all of Teagans cakes were the $10 kind! lol... Teagan is still alive, still happy, and still got cake!!) they just love cake!! They don't care if there is a pony and a clown and party favors (yeah, of course they'd like that, but they'd also like to eat nothing but candy all day every day, does that make it right for them??) but they will have fun just playing with their friends! There doesn't need to be 800 people present to say "look how popular my two year old is!!" there just needs to be people there who also love and care about your child and want to spend the special day celebrating.
I'm all low key in almost everything I do, but birthday parties, I don't understand over the top birthday's every year of the kids' life. Some people are insane and I swear its just them trying to say "I love my kid more than you love yours!" or "Im a better parent than you!" or some other asinine implication that is obviously an overcompensation for something that they really feel inside.
I don't understand spending tons of money on parties either. For Alaina's birthday, the only thing we splurged on was her cake. My mom bought her decorations (since she couldn't be there) and we used coupons and bought burgers and hot dogs. That show on TLC is ridiculous. They spend twice as much on their kid's birthdays than we spent on our wedding. In my opinion, ridiculous parties are more for the parents to show how much money they have. In the military community it really doesn't make any sense, since we all know what each other's husband makes lol.
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